Crime & Justice

Santa Ana will pay $100,000 to settle pot shop raid lawsuit

File: Screenshot showing Santa Ana police officers engaging in questionable behavior during a police raid at Sky High Holistic dispensary where the video was recorded in 2015.
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AP|October 26, 2016

The city of Santa Ana will pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging police harassment during a raid on a marijuana dispensary.

Attorney Matthew Pappas said the money will go to two Sky High volunteers and an unrelated doctor whose nearby office was affected by last year's raid.

The suit was filed after surveillance video showed police playing darts and an officer making demeaning comments about a woman in a wheelchair. Another officer can be seen eating what appears to be a pot-laced edible, according to the lawyer.

The suit alleged that Mayor Miguel Pulido and other city employees favored certain dispensaries. It said the city put up a ballot proposal, Measure BB, for the November 2014 election, soliciting payments from collectives with the promise of winning a spot in an eventual marijuana permit lottery.

Sky High Holistic did not win a spot in the lottery and its patients allege that because Pulido and other city employees had financial ties with competing dispensaries, they used their positions to close down the competition.

Pulido denied the allegations and said the city hired a firm to conduct the lottery.

Earlier this year, three police officers were charged with misdemeanor petty theft and one with vandalism for allegedly stealing snacks and damaging surveillance cameras. They are no longer employed by the city's police department.